While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer? It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

He said for lobstermen that only fish only a couple traps per vertical line, they’d go from needing 6 and a half minutes to haul up some lobsters to 11 and a half minutes. I talked to the report author about this, Noah Oppenhiem.

And the biggest impacts would be on smaller, more independent operators.

But here’s what’s really crazy: the state found that even if lobstermen were just given the on-demand gear for free, using government and nonprofit subsidies, they would still go from making $15 million per year in revenue to just $2 million in revenue per year. But a new report says Massachusetts lobstermen may be headed for troubled economic waters if they make the switch. There fewer than 340 of the critically endangered whales left.

Experts often say the lobster fishery will have to move to innovative “ropeless” fishing gear to protect North Atlantic right whales from entanglement.

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